The present invention relates to mobile communications systems, more particularly to services that are provided to users of a mobile communications system, and even more particularly to techniques for informing a mobile communications system user of the status of other users in the system.
As the user base of wireless (mobile) communications systems continues to grow, so do the number and types of services that such systems can offer. No longer are mobile communication devices limited to providing just the traditional voice communication services. Instead, services such as paging, e-mail, general data transmission, chat-programs and even general purpose browsers are becoming more commonplace as devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and other types of intelligent mobile terminals are introduced into the marketplace.
One problem that currently exists in the mobile communication environment is the inability of a calling party to know whether an intended recipient of a phone call has his or her telephone xe2x80x9con-linexe2x80x9d (i.e., switched on or within range), thereby enabling that intended recipient to answer/receive the call. Similar problems exist with respect to other types of communications as well, such as with a Short Message Service (SMS) message. In the case of an SMS-message, the calling party presently has no way of knowing whether the intended recipient is presently on-line, thereby increasing the probability that he will actually read the transmitted message now, or whether the intended recipient is presently off-line, thereby increasing the likelihood that the message will be read at some time in the (possibly) distant future.
The problem with this lack of information is that, whenever a person makes a call, it takes some seconds to dial the number, some more seconds for the system to call the B-party, and then still more seconds either for the B-party to answer or for the system to notify the calling party (the xe2x80x9cA-partyxe2x80x9d) that the user cannot be reached at the moment because, for example, the phone is not switched on. While the amount of time involved in making an uncompleted call might, at first, seem trivial, it can add up to a substantial number of minutes when one considers how many uncompleted calls are attempted in any given day. If the calling party were to know, ahead of time, that a call could not presently be completed, then the attempt would not be made and the time involved could be saved for more productive activities.
There are a number of solutions to this problem in the wireline Internet world. For example, a product called ICQ is a known Internet tool that provides information about who is on-line at any given time, and enables a user to contact these individuals. However, because of fundamental differences between the wireline Internet infrastructure and that which is found in the mobile communications world (e.g., cellular telephone environments), the known wireline-based solutions are not functional in the wireless world.
Therefore, it is desired to provide a mechanism for a calling party in a mobile communication system to know, ahead of time, whether an intended recipient of a call or other transmission is presently capable of receiving an anticipated call or other transmission.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide systems and techniques for notifying mobile users of various status conditions associated with other mobile users.
The foregoing and other objects are achieved in systems and methods for notifying a first user of a mobile communication device about status of other users in a mobile communications system. In one aspect of the invention, such systems and methods include sending a signal from the mobile communication device to a service node in the mobile communications system. At the service node, a list is determined that indicates other users that the first user wants to know the status of. The status of each of the other users on the list is then determined, and the status is transmitted from the service node to the mobile communication device.
In another aspect of the invention, the sending of the signal from the mobile communication device to the service node in the mobile communications system is performed in response to the mobile communication device being powered on. The signal may further include an indication that the mobile communication device has been powered on, and at the service node, a determination may be made of other lists in which the first user is listed. For each of the other lists, a corresponding other user may be determined, and a notification may be sent to each of the corresponding other users indicating that the first user has gone on-line.
In one embodiment of the invention, the service node is a home location register.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, the types of status may include any of the following: an indication of whether each of the other users on the list is on-line; an indication of whether each of the other users on the list is associated with a voicemail service; an indication of whether each of the other users on the list is associated with an e-mail service; and an indication of the location of each of the other users on the list. Other types of status may be indicated as well.
In still another aspect of the invention, transient conditions are inhibited from being reported as a user""s status by waiting until a condition has continued to exist for a predetermined period of time before that user""s status is updated to indicate the condition. Such transient conditions may include, for example, temporarily going off-line due to driving through a tunnel, or due to riding in an elevator.